This newly discovered picture is a fine portrait of Philipp Daniel Lippert, an important draughtsman, antiquarian and collector in eighteenth century Germany. After an apprenticeship at the Dresden school of drawing, he worked at the Meissen porcelain factory, where he was recorded in 1726 as an artist.

With the support of the Dresden architect Friedrich August Krubsacius, he obtained commissions from the court, and in 1735 he was appointed a drawing master at its Pagenakademie. Lippert began the study of antique gems and collected impressions from all over Europe, resulting in his monumental Dactyliotheca in 1755–6, which contained three ‘volumes’ with a total of over three thousand reproduced casts.

His collectio...